40th Birthday

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Yesterday I turned 40. I still feel 28, shame that the looks don't match. Wrinkles and sun damage are starting to show on my skin, bugger that

On the way to my birthday dinner at the Vinoy Hotel we had a very unfortunate incident. The vintage Volvo went through a huge mass of water on the road and broke down. We have not had rain for the longest time in Florida, but yesterday the skies opened up and the deluge poured down.

The Colonel pushed the car with the help of some kind stranger into a petrol station, getting soaked through while in his finery. I remained in the car, well someone had to steer, besides I didn't wont to ruin my coiffure or my fancy outfit.

While working on the car at the station the Colonel was having no luck. Some random guy came over and started helping and when things were clearly not going in our favour, drove us home so we could get our second car. Honestly, what a rare, good hearted person to show such kindness to complete strangers and to go so far out of his way for them. I think he was an Angel in disguise and am very thankful to him.

We were able to get to our dinner, 30 minutes late and a bit frazzled but with ravenous appetites. All of my best friends made since moving here were there and I had a wonderful night. Not only did I imbibe liberally my favourite drink, the grasshopper, one of the guests bought champagne for everyone and offered a lovely toast to myself and the Colonel. Cheers!

Prawn Cocktail. I had chicken stuffed with Lobster, but got stuck in so fast I forgot to take a photo.

On the present side of things I made out very well.

Rolex watch from the Colonel.

Anyone fancy a cup of tea?

Wedgewood Jasperware tea set

Chocolate wine. Yum!

Lapis necklace bought back by one of my guests from Bahrain. It was picked out for me because I love lapis. So sweet.

A Survival guide written by this guy! It was meant to be a bit of a joke gift but honestly, where I am going it will be essential reading. This guy is probably considered hot stuff in Idaho. Oh dear!

There is also a pashmina bought back from Afghanistan. It's very lovely but I didn't take a picture as it has already been packed away in a sealed box. I have been assured it was not purchased from some crazy Talibani though.

Today we have been running about doing necessary errands and packing. Moving is just awful, I loathe it. Writing this blog post is a nice little break, it was either stop and do this or have a nervous breakdown, still not ruling out the latter.

This is my last post before I hit the wide open road. Not sure how long it will be before I am able to get Internet access again. Hopefully it won't be too long as there will surely be stories of surprising adventures acculumlated while driving across this vast land.